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Am I destroying my career?
Yes you are... UNLESS you gain knowledge outside your current job you will become quite value-less to other companies. You have to keep yourself current. I worked as a SENIOR software developer for 11 years and when I changed positions I was clueless as to all other technologies and methodologies. I had no idea what Scrum was ...

I've been a .NET developer for going on 12 years and I'm still as passionate today as I was on day one.
If you're stuck witting console apps and don't have much variety in your development work this can be difficult. I think I would probably feel the same as you in this position.
The thing that has kept .NET interesting for me is learning all the new ...

You have an advantage in your current position in that you have time to actually research and apply new technologies to what you are doing thanks to the pace in your environment, and you will get paid to do it. I would take as much advantage of that as possible to sharpen your skills.

I'd go with the same method posted here:
Hit Ctrl + F
Type in part of the link's text you want to open
Hit F3 if the found text is not on the link
When it is, press Esc, this makes the link in focus
Hit [Ctrl] Enter (ctrl is to open it in a new tab)

Your doing everything right.
I'd add find all the free podcasts and Youtube channels that cover the technologies you are interested in and stay up to date with these. For example I'm a .NET developer so follow DotNetRocks, Channel9 to name a few religiously.
Also identify the people or teams who work on the technologies you use. If these people have a ...

Try VimFx for Firefox
Example
Press f and all links get labelled with letters. See screenshot:
Type for example the letters hk (you don't need to press Shift to capitalize them), and you have effectively "clicked" the Questions link with your keyboard -- and pretty fast for that matter.
More examples
Typing Shift+f labels all links with letters as ...

If you can, read it later. There are dozens of great services, like Pocket or Instapaper, that allows you to save texts, files and even entire web-pages to read them later, when you have finished your other tasks. They are great, since you can also have offline versions of site-pages and you can install them on tablets/smartphones. This should prevent you ...

I suffered the exact problem.
Over the years, I've learned a couple methods/tools that helped.
But in general, it's more of a habit/process issue than the lack of hardware.
I'll first talk about some tools:
For browser tabs, I like 'one tab' or something like 'simple window saver' (for chrome). Just find a session managing extension that helps you quickly ...

Your problem is "good colleagues", they're the ones that keep you at the level you are right now… if you want to do something get out of their lengthy lunches, long walks, useless chats. This will make you uncomfortable with your current state, but that’s the idea!
As long as you stay with them, you'll be like them, don’t make friends in office just keep ...

You can improve your skills AND keep your job. You have spare time to learn - use it!
Read up agile methodologies. Write unit tests. Introduce bug database. Etc. Read up Joel Spolsky advice: 12 Steps to Better Code and Getting Things Done When You're Only a Grunt and more.

I have been using a multiple monitor setup since DualView came out in windows. I first used it for while playing games, and then quickly added a dual monitor setup to my work computer. At my job a few years ago, I had a 4 monitor setup, but It was a more stressful job where I needed to monitor systems in real time on 2 of the 4 screens. I did not ...

What i do to be "one of the updated" is less hands on courses on new techs but following hackers, who are well known in their respective communities, to get something like a birds eye view of the industry.
This way you don't have to spend time going through the information right away, but you still have good chances to not miss anything usefull.
You could, ...

Yes, you are destroying your career and you will struggle when the time comes to find a new software engineering position.
In my experience, positions at the more interesting companies (above average salary and working conditions) are interesting in seeing your GitHub account to gauge your skills as a coder as well and demonstrating your enthusiasm in ...

Use your free time to get certifications in things you're interested in. The goal of certification will drive you and will make sure you're actually thorough. Or change jobs - I quit a very cushy and mostly enjoyable job because I had just been doing the same thing too long. 9 years in my case.

The best thing I know is to browse Stack Overflow, which you already do. Whenever I encounter some new technology or toolbox in the world, I have already at least seen references to it at Stack Overflow. I would never feel so oriented without that unique presentation.
Try to visit a local User Group and meet real people doing work that relates in some way ...

I also tend to "multitask" heavily on my Kubuntu Laptop, especially when working intensively on different projects as a college student. However I was pretty ok with it once I got a little bit organized. Additionally I have a heavy tendency to procrastination, so it is important as well for me to separate work from entertainment. I also work in 3, sometimes ...

Use OneTab. It is a Chrome/Firefox extension.
It allows you to - with a single right click - move all your 500 tabs into a list that is then persistent. This is better than bookmarking them, especially if you only want to read them once and because bookmarking 500 items is a pain.

I highly recommend Pentadactyl for Firefox, or Vimium for Chrome or Opera. They give vim-like (ie., highly efficient) keyboard control over the web browser. Links are given shortcuts, so any on-screen link should be at most a few keystrokes away. Pentadactyl, and to a lesser extent Vimium & VimFx, rely on Vim keys and similar mnemonics for shortcuts, ...

Bookmarking alternative
Emacs org-mode. Using org-protocol, you can add links to your notes. My browser bookmark bar is empty; I had hundreds of old archived bookmark files that I had little hope of getting through. I converted them to org-mode files (probably using pandoc), and quickly sorted, cleaned out and extracted what I might actually need.
So now, ...

It is difficult not to multitask in the modern environment. I think simplifying can be an answer to your question. Try to create good organized bookmark system. Using bookmarks can be a good way to reduce the amount of tabs on your browser.
Also general simplifying as one task per time is a good exercise to improve your productivity. I tend to use chrome ...

I used to have a 24" LCD in addition with my MBP 15".
Here are some of the use cases:
Coding: IDE on primary screen and resource on secondary screen.
Reading: Take notes on primary, material on secondary.
Web programming: IDE on primary, webpage result on secondary.
productivity: GTD tools on secondary for reference, e.g. OmniFocus or Evernote where you ...

Probably:
add RAM
switch to an SSD if you're on a traditional hard disk
plug in an SD card or Flash drive and try ReadyBoost
Also:
inspect msconfig and remove any superficial tasks (e.g. iTunes helpers)
also have a look at Services and do the same

How much RAM does your computer have? Is it sufficient to store the entire excel file in memory?
When you say the machine does a lot of disk accesses, it could indicate that your RAM is filled up, and the computer is using a pagefile (using the hard drive as a swap space for running applications).
Possible wins without knowing the actual cause:
Don't run ...

There is no need to create an entirely new distribution to solve this problem.
Install the software wmctrl.
Write a BASH script and launch it whenever you start X. This should control whether these applications are hidden or visible at certain times.
Here is a basic script, although you may need to make some changes to make it work properly:
#!/bin/bash
...

About your skills
You probably are not mediocre. Check this slides from a presentation about the impostor syndrome.
Not knowing about a specific technology or methodology is not deadly by itself. You could alway learn about the new shiny buzzword when you start feeling less comfortable with your current job. Also, if you pick something that interest you ...

If you want to stay at the top of your career you will need to work hard, take courses and learn the latest and greatest technologies. If you are fairly gifted and are willing to sacrifice a lot of time and effort and if you are lucky you will be promoted to management. On the other hand if you like a decent wage and would like to balance that with a ...

I like to maintain side projects. I recommend both handling everything yourself and working on a community project on GitHub.
When you handle everything yourself you can pretty easily spot the gaping holes in your knowledge base. This includes handling everything from source control to architecture to coding to presentation and aesthetics. You will see how ...

Yes, you are destroying your career. I think you have two options:
1- See if you can advance within your company OUT of software development and into the business side of things. Your knowledge of the software will be an asset. And your lack of depth won't hurt you since you won't need it anymore. A lot of advanced developers end up doing that anyway when ...

Will it keep you happy?
You might want to consider doing a degree or other higher-level course to keep you learning. Ask your company to pay for it and give you time off to revise for example, after all they are likely to gain from your training and interest.
If your company does invest in you in this way then give them (mucho) credit for it when you get ...